BX.75 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 789 528 6 



pUS3 



s :f^ E] El o :e3: 



OF 



^ 



ON. COLUMBUS FEIMI 

Deliveked at Raleigh, ]S"orth Carodina, July 24j4872 



In the remarks wliich I shall make I pro- 
pose to examine the history and condition 
of the Republican party, and consider the 
claims of the Administration to j'our ap- 
proval and support. Not only xw North 
Carolina but throughout the country there 
are new combinations in politics proposed, 
founded on the most unwarrantable charges 
against the Republican party and its admin- 
istration of public affairs. iKto the correct- 
ness of these charges I propose to inquire, 
that it may be seen how far they are justified 
upon sound political principles, or sustained 
bythe public experience of the last twelve 
years. 

An extensive combination of disappointed 
pohticians has joined its political fortunes to 
that of the Democratic party, and under the 
specious cry of "reform" — the last resort of 
discarded demagogues— now prosecute the 
vain enterprise of overthrowing the Repub- 
lican party. ' You are told, in vague and 
general terms, that the Administration is 
corrupt; that to reform it the Republican 
party organization should bo abandoned; 
that Liberal Republicans and Free-trade 
Democrats should combine to defeat the Re- 
publican candidates and elect one whose 
name, history, and fortunes have been that 
of party, and partisan only. 

I desire to examine into the correctness and 
sincerity of this combination— whether it re- 
lies for support upon its professed principles 
of reform or whether it is not a coalition with 
direct reference to mere party success, for 
party purposes and for public plunder. 

The first great political organization in this 
country was that Republican party which de- 
manded American nationality, and which 
gave to us the Constitution and Union; made 
us one people; declared us a nation, and 
elected to the Presidency the man who led 
the armies of the Re))ublie through tho war 
for independence. During that struggle, in 
the midst of the anxiety and uutiring'efforts 
of our fathers to preserve and bear aloft the 
great principles of constitutional liberty, 
there were still found some to cry out against 



\ 



party and for party reform. That-ciamor, 
however, was frowned down with indignation, 
and scorn by every RepubTroan heart in the 
Jand, and it deserves no other fate to-day. 
This feeling was so strong during tho period 
of the first American decade as to lead to the> 
unwise enactment of the sedition laws by 
Congress — a mistalsen policy, as was showo 
in the aphorism of Jefrerson, that "Error 
might be tolerated if truth was left free to com- 
bat it." 

Let me inquire what is party? Is it a catch- 
word used to delude, deceive, and impose 
upon the honest people of the land? or'isit 
something that is significant of principle and 
stability ;" which commends itself to the intel- 
ligence and integrity of the country? The 
Republican party of to-day is an association 
of citizens extending through every State> 
and reaching every election district in the 
land. Men thereby act in concert to carry 
out great fundamental principles in the ad- 
ministration of government. Men of a like 
faith and purpose thus voluntarUy unite in 
their political efforts for tuB purpose of pla- 
cing and sustaining in the responsible offices 
of the people those of their fellow-citizens 
whose principles accord with their own. 
Thus the public affairs of the nation are 
administered upon such repubUcan prin- 
ciples as, in their judgment, will best 
promote the welfare and prosperity of the 
whole country. Ours is strictly a representa- 
tive government, and, therefore, recognizes 
tluroughout its whole system the people's will 
as tho supreme law, subject only to tho re- 
strictions and- limitations of the "Constitution 
and laws. It is not only right and proper, 
but absolutely necessary for tho preservation 
of American interests, therefore; that the 
most convenient plan be practiced to enforce 
the popular will and signify its wishes to the 
trovernment. This, in my judgment, can be 
best effected through and bythe orga-aization 
of political parties; for, however just and 
correct the opinions of all the people of'Nortli 
Carolina might be, they would avail nofcl in.u 
unless the people were allowed t.'> man i''>st. 



I. 



■^ . D 



II- 



MiOiii ill the direct voice o£ their repre- 
seutatives. AVhat matters it if a large 
majority of tlio people of this State 
arc opposed to the issue of aa irre- 
deemable quantity of paper money, or an 
increase of the public debt, unless they shall 
see to it, in a public capacity, that their rep- 
rfeseutatives when elected to Congress will 
faithfully reflect tlieir opinions on those sub- 
jects? Tlfis can only be done by the united 
efforts of all those who are in accord upon 
great cardinal principles; and this is the 
■work of party. It enables the people to de- 
clare their will in a practical form and com- 
J)els a compliance with it on the part of their 
rtgencs. It carries the beneficeut theory of 
the government into effective operation, and 
makes ib what it ought to be, and what it was 
intended to be— a government of the people 
find for the people. 

The present effort to break down party 
organization under the delusive cry of cor- 
ruption on the one hand and reform on the 
other, is a blow at the foundation of our po- 
litical system. It strikes at the fundamental 
.principle of our Government, and goes to 
$)araly2e the arm and hush the voice of the 
people by relieving their representatives 
-from party responsibility. Should this iftw 
combination of experimenting Kepublicans 
and reconstructed Democrats succeed in the 
attempt to destroy existing parties, and upon 
their ruins raise up a new party headed by 
Horace Greeley for the Presidency, are you 
to take Ids past history and record as indi- 
cating the policy of his administration? This 
question presents itself to the serious eou- 
sideratlon of Democrats, as well as Republi- 
cans; of the South as well as the North, and 
of every material interest in the land. While 
the most consistent leaders of the Demo- 
cratic party have, from the first, opposed his 
eleetion; opposed his indorsement and nomi- 
nation at Baltimore, it is that class of ad- 
venturers, soldiers of fortune, and politicians 
out of ofQce, independent of all popular au- 
thority, and led by the Senatorial trium- 
virate, which has fioallj'' thrust him before 
the people as a Presidential candidate. Such 
action' alone as that of the late Cincinnati 
gathering would bring the popular system of 
nominations into contempt, and that of 
party conventions into derision. 

THE HEPUBLICiLK PARTY. 

The Republican party, from the first, was 
a constitutional organization, springing 
quickly into existence after thp repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. Its single purpose 
was to prevent the spread of slavery into tiie 
Territories, and it laid no hand on slavery in 
the States, It is not my intention to repeat 
the history of the rise and fall of slavery, or 
to call in review the enormities of that' sys- 
tem. These have, happily, passed away. 
The most compact and condensed system of 
wrong, which governments ever tolerated or 
thedepravity of man ever invented, is claimed 
to have had Its origin in war; and, true to its 
natiTral instincts lor a little longer life and a 
little more power, it drev/ the sword, made 
war on the American Republic, and perished 
by. the ij word. In that day four millions of 



freemen were added to the United States. 
Depending on the issues of that event were 
many weighty considerations. War destroyed 
all civil government in the rebel States. The 
tenure of property was shaken and lost; pov- 
erty overtook tlie peaceabla and the loyal; 
many precious lives were sacrificed, and gen- 
eral disaster was extensively endured. But 
to compensate for these great evds you have 
gained freedom and unity for the State. No 
complaint can now be lodged at the bar of 
Eternal Justice against the enormity of 
American slavery. This work has been ac- 
complished by the Republican party. 

Following this are the acts of reconstruc- 
tion of the Southern States. If these have 
seemed harsh to some, it was Imperative 
legislation, made so to rescue order and gov- 
ernment out of the chaos and confusion result- 
ing from the war. To attain these, enfran- 
chisement and the right of suffrage have 
been extended to the colored citizen. This 
was not less an act of justice than of public 
safety. The colored man had been declared 
forever free, and if freedom meant anything, 
it meant that he should staud equal before 
the law and have a voice in legislation. Re- 
cognizing this fundamental principle Con- 
gress reconstructed the Southern States ac- 
cordingly. 

The Democratic party, not relishing this 
condition, again rebelled. Its leaders in Con- 
gress and its newspaper press denounced 
these acts as unconstitutional. An open war 
oa the part of the opposition being found im- 
practicable. 

THE KIJKLUX 

remedy was next resorted to. That organi- 
zation obtained and governed in fourteen 
counties of your ov/u State, and to a yet 
greater extent in five neighboring States. In 
the fourteen counties it committed eighteen 
homicides, and admiuistered three hundred 
and fifteen whippings on unoffending Repub- 
licans. But tlie avenging arm of the General 
Government has been laid, not too heavily, 
upon this last Democratic enormity. The 
records of your Federal courts bear witness 
to the barbarity and treason of the Kuklux 
Klaus, and the convicted felons who have 
gone up from North Carolina and the neigh- 
boring States to expiate their crimes in the 
penitentiary are living monuments of the 
cruelty and treason latent in the Democratic 
party. 

« There are still other deeds which have been 
accomplished by the Republican party to 
which I must invite yqur attention. It "has 
given guarantees for the faithful payment of 
the public debt. It has provided pensions 
for the crippled and disabk'd soldiers who 
shed luster upon America by their heroism 
in defending the Union. It' has provided 
pensions for the orphans of tho.se who sacri- 
ficed their lives in the glorious cause, and for 
the widows who are compelled to pour out 
bitter tears upon the graves of their hus- 
bands who laid down their lives for their 
country. These sacred pL-dges of a nation's 
gratitude will never be withdrawn while the • 
widow and fatherless live to enjoy them. 
This glorious work of the llepublicau party 



■^ '^ you are proud of. Is it time for you now to 
"H. desert this party? Cau any honest man 
^ justify hiaiself iu such desertion? 

There is yet other work accomplished by 
VJ^ this great party to which I must allude. It 
^has provided against the payracnit of the debt 
^ contracted by the rebel States in their effort 
'^ to destroy the Union. It; has resolved not to 
pay the former masters for emancipated 
slaves. It felt that those who coerced eman- 
cipation by attempting to destroy the Union 
lost all right in equity to any compensation 
by such emaucipation, and it has determined 
to stand upon these great ideas and great 
principles under all circumstances and iu 
every emergeucy. This worli will live in his- 
tory. It will IJe worshiped by those who 
come after us; and if any hand is now or 
shall hereafter be raised to undo this work, 
to nullify it, or impair its obligation and va- 
lidity, the execrations of all good men will be 
meted out to him who raises such hand, now, 
and iu all time to come. 

All this great and noble work has been 
accomplished under the constant and per- 
sistent opposition of the Democratic party; 
but in the midst ©f this warfare the fiepub- 
lican party has made its way onward in its 
righteous work. In patience and sorrow it 
has sought to enforce the laws, bring the 
guilty to punishment, do justice to the op- 
pressed, and deal rightly with all. 

KESITLTS OF REPUBLICAN POLICY. 

I now come to inquire what results have 
been accomplished by General Grant's ad- 
ministration which are to be placed to the 
credit of the Republican party. All the 
great questions which were raised by the 
■war have been settled. Emancipation, re- 
construction, impartial suffrage, general am- 
nesty, and civil service reform, have all been 
secured, either by constitutional amendment 
or by provisions of law. Important and 
threatening differences with foreign nations 
have been settled by treaty, and are now in 
process of amicable adjustment, and a new 
and important principle has been introduced 
into our foreign intercourses which proposes 
to settle differences between foreign nations 
upon the principle of arbitration, which, it 
is believed, -mU. secure the Government 
against the recurrence of war in the future 
•with foreigu nations, and tend greatly to ad- 
vance the civilization, peace, and happiness 
of the world. Every State is fully repre- 
sented in Congress. All parties profess to 
acquiesce in these results. No considerable 
faction in any State to-day continues, openly, 
to agitate for the overthrow of these meas- 
iires or dispute the justice and wisdom of the 
Eepublican policy. 

The principal and great remaining ques- 
tions in this canvass are commercial and 
economical. They relate to the material in- 
terests of the country; interests which have 
undergone fearful sullering during the war, 
Which have carried an enormous national 
debt to support the war, and whicu have 
since wouderfully revived under Republican 
rule, and which are in themselves the strong 
foundation to all that we can boast of mate- 
rial and social development. While tli'^ A'l- 



ministratiou has boeu assailed by extreme 
theorists iu various selfish interests, its ac- 
tion has been guided by priuciplcs whi<;h 
command the respect of candid men. It has^ 
undertaken to relieve the burden of taxa- 
tion impartially, as fast as the interests oT' 
the Government would permit ou the on& 
hand; on the other, without exposing vested 
interests and that of labor and capital to 
sudden and disastrous changes. Iu this mod- 
erate, course the Administration has con- 
ferred more general benefit thau to have 
plunged headlong i#to excessive reductions: 
or to have obstinately favored powcrfol com- 
mercial interests. 

It has been the policy of the Admiulstra- 
tion to pay the public debt as speedily as pos-. 
sible. The marvels which have been accom-, 
plished in this respect are known to every in- 
telligent man. They are printed in thou- 
sands of newspapers, proclaimed frona«hun- 
dreds of rostrums, and are familiar to all. 
That $330,976,916 39 of the public debt wera 
paid from March 4, 1869, to July 1, 1872, be- 
ing upward of 8100,000,000 per annum, or 
eight and a half millions per month j that th*ii 
annual interest charge has been reduced to 
the extent of $22,401,037 annually— theso 
facts are known to you, and ought to excite 
no other emotion than that of a generous 
confidence in the integrity and ability of the 
Administration, 

FINANCIAL. 

This extinguishment of jthe public debi; 
has been effected under, so to speak, a heavy 
simultaneous reduction of taxation made by 
the Republicau party. At the termination 
of the war the Republican party addressed 
itself to such reduction of taxation, and it 
has pursued this policy, as fast as was con- 
sistent with public credit, and the necessary 
actual expenses of the Government. 

By acts of Congress approved Julv 13, 
18G6, March 2, 1867, February 3, 1863," and 
March 31, 1869,_jeductions v/efemade iu tax- 
ation which would have yielded for the three 
ye^s of this Administration, had the taxes 
been continued, $589,450,000, and for thes© 
facts there is tlie record from the Commis- 
sioner of Internal Revenue. 

Finding it practicable to still further re- 
duce taxation Congress, by acts approved 
July 4, 1870, and June 6, 1872, reduced from 
the excise tax to the extent of $75,651,000 per 
annum; and by the acts of July 4, 1870, May 
1 and June 6, 1872, tariff duties were reduced' 
to the extent of $54,809,588 per annum, andi 
for this I refer to the acts of Congress before! 
mentioned, and the estimate and statements 
of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
thus showing a total reduction of taxes 
yearly of $130,460,580 during the tliree years' 
of General Grant's administration. If, in 
the face of these reductions, it be asked how 
the Republican party has been able to extin- 
guish so much of the public debt, I answer, 
by an eflicient and faithful administration 
of the revenue laws, and by an honest appli- 
cation of the money collected; and here I 
give the facts to prove this assertion. iSBt 
them be understood and remembered. 

The total receipt-; from spirits, tohnf'-i, fer- 



nicntoil liiiQors, banlcs and bankers, gas, atl- 
Iicsivo atatups, and penalties, from March 1, 
1SC9, to February 29, 1872, were $339,350,333. 
This, yon will observe, was during the first 
three years of General Grant's administra- 
tion. 

Now fook at the total receipts from the 
same articles from March 1, 18G6, to Febru- 
ary 28, 1SG9, beiD{» the last three years of Mr. 
Johnson's administration. They were 5231,- 
153,714, showing a gain in favor of this Ad- 
ministration, in three years, of ?108,202,639, 
being at the rate of 47 per cent, for the three 
years, and making an average increase, from 
the same source3,"of over thirty-six millions 
■of dollars annually. This illustration 1 give 
in regard to collections on the enumerated 
articles, and assert that it may be carried out 
as applicable to the entire field of revenue 
collections and taxation. It furnishes a clear 
and satisfactory reason for the ability of the 
Administration to reduce the public debt in 
the face of excessive reduction of taxation, 
and it ought to convince all candid men of 
the danger of disorganizing or abandoning 
the Republican party for the purpose of ex- 
perimenting with a party composed of dis- 
satisfied Republicans and clamorous Demo- 
crats. 

By the same acts of Congress to which I 
have la'5t referred duties were wholly re- 
moved from tea and coffee, and from many 
other articles of necessity for consumption 
and manufacturing, while the excise was 
limited to spirits, fermented liquors, to- 
bacco, banking, patent medicines, and stamps 
upon checks. 

Thus you will see that direct taxation has 
been virtually abandoned. The tax-gatherer 
shall enter your domiciles no more; and the 
only warrant Congress and the country had 
for this sweeping reduction and repeal was 
the public confidence in the financial skill, 
integrity, and ability of the present Admin- 
istration. 

The foremost journal of Europe, the rep- 
resentative of the British nation and the 
British debt, which, formerly spoke in dispar- 
aging terms of American credit, and was 
never very friendly to American interests, 
ihas expressed astonishment at what we have 
laccomplished, and has frankly admitted that 
no nation in Eiirope could have borne the 
like strains upon her resources without the 
most serious embarrassments. 

The credit of the country has improved in 
a'degreo most satisfactory 'to every patriotic 
mind; the price of American securities has 
•constantly ad'vanced; the appreciation of our 
.paper monery is marked by the fall of gold 
from $1 32 in 18G9 to Si 10 and $1 12 in 1872. 
.At the commencement of the present Ad- 
ministration the securities of the United 
States were below the par value of gold from 
15 to 17 per cent., and to-day we daro boast 
that American securities are equal in value 
to gold. These and like considerations it is 
that has enabled the Government already to 
place its public securities at a greatly reduced 
rate of interest, and the same causes, if con- 
tinued, will enable us to call in the baJauce of 
our G per cent. loan and place it at a rate of 



interest from 4 to 5 per cent. Upon this sub- 
ject I refer with satisfaction to the remarks 
of one of the leaders of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, Hon. Mr. Brooks, of New York, 
a member of the Committee of Ways and 
Means, delivered in the House Februaiy 1, 
1872. Mr. Brooks said: 

"No voice on this, or on the other side of 
the House, now demands repudiation; all 
arc for the faithful discharge of the public 
debt. The action of Congress upon this 
subject has lifted the public credit to an en- 
viable position throughout the whole world. 
Just before tl:e close of the war our Govern- 
ment was borrowing money at twelve per 
cent. After the peace, the rate ot interest 
rapidly fell to seven per cent. In 1869, it 
fell to six per cent. ; in 1870, to five and a half 
per cent., and before the end of 1871, it fell 
to a small fraction more than five per cent. 
The interest upon the public debt has rapidly 
been going down. I said in this House two 
years ago, when the funding bill was dis- 
cussed here, and v/hen I supnorted the action 
of the Committee of Ways and Means, in 
spite of some hesitancy among my friends' on 
this side of the House as to the propriety of 
lending that support — 1 said then, that, in 
my Judgment, such was the rising credit of 
the country that there would be no difficulty 
if time could only be given, in negotiating 
the whole public debt of this country at the 
rate of four per cent, per annum." 

What Congress was this that "lifted the 
public credit to an enviable position through- 
out the whole world?" The Republican Con- 
gress which came in with the present Admin- 
istration. And under what circumstances had 
the public credit been lifted up and the pub- 
lic debt been reduced? Under the facts state'ci, 
of the repeal of revenue equal to a hundred 
millions of dollars annually. But this sum 
was more than regained by the faithful col- 
lection and honest application of the public 
resources to the public liabilities by the pub- 
lic officers of General Grant's administration. 
Is there not both honor and glory in this? 
And this policy now fairly accomplished, the 
necessity for so rapid a reduction of the pub- 
lic indebtedness has become less important. 
It may hereafter be reduced at a much less 
rate— say fifty or twenty-flve millions per 
annum, if you please— and thereby the peo- 
ple's taxes may be correspondingly reduced. 

For myself I do not consider it desirable to 
extinguish hereafter the public debt too rap- 
idl5^ I am for such taxation only as will 
meet a moderate reduction each year and 
defray the necessary expenses of the Govern- 
ment. Contemplating our vast national re- 
sources, it may be confidently predicted to be 
an easy task, in the hands of honest ag.8nt3, 
for this nation to preserve its faith and pay 
the public debt within twenty years. And 
during all that time the people will enjoy 
such physical comfort and prosperity as are 
allotted to no other nation on the globe. To 
this end, with a protective view to American 
industry and American labor, the excise and 
tariff laws have been reformed by the pres- 
ent Congress solely in tlie interests and wel- 
fare of the people. 



I maintain that tlia record of this Adminis- 
tration in all the civil affairs of the nation 
has been pure, and high in character ard 
ability, and is as remarkable as the energy 
and fidelity of General Grant during the 
■war. 

There is no mystery a-bout General Grant's 
capacity to administer public affairs. It is 
explained in the fact tiiat the President is in 
close sympathy with the Republican party.aud 
that the Kepublican party in close sympathy 
with the masses of the people. Even those 
who have lieretoforo voted against his Ad- 
ministration include many thousands who 
believe in its integrity and* trustworthiness, 
and who fear the hazard of a change. The 
success of General Grant in his civil admin- 
istration may bo accounted for by the same 
reasons that account for his military victo- 
ries. It is because his fidelity, integrity, and 
patriotism deserve success. 

IMDIAN rOLICT. 

I feel compelled in these remarks to refer 
briefly to what is known as the Indian policy 
of the present Administration. 

It is not denied, nor has there ever been 
on the part of the Government any effort to 
conceal the fact, that thert, are occasional 
acts of theft, robbery, and murder by Indi- 
ans. These have been most frequent in 
Arizona, and on the Texas frontier, but 
they have often been provoked and increased 
by the cruel and wicked conduct of bad 
white men. These acts of outrage have not 
been committed by organized tribes, nations, 
or bands of Indians, but on tho contrary, by 
individual or associated Indians, acting 
against tho wishes of their nation or tribe, 
and not under tribal authority. The fact is 
there are bad Indians as well as bad white 
menj and if, under our civilization, it is im- 
possible always to suppress, or even punish, 
robbery, theft, murder, and other crimes, is 
it wonderful if such practices are more fre- 
quently committed and seldom punished 
among the savages? 

I am not prepared with figures for an ac- 
curate comparison, but I venture to say that 
the proportion of lawless violence, resulting 
in danger to life and property, is much 
greater in the city of New York than among 
many or all of our Indian tribes, and that a 
greater portion of these «riminals go unpun- 
ished in that city tkan among the Indians. I 
feel quite sure that the same remark would 
be correct if made of several other cities, or 
indeed of many States in this Union. 

During the existence of the present Ad- 
ministration there has been 

AN OKOANIZED AND STSTEJIATIC ATTACK 

upon its Indian policy. The plan has been to 
misrepresent by denying that any good has 
been accomplished, and to exaggerate for sen- 
sational purposes every wrong committed by 
the Indians, and sometimes to assert that In- 
dian outrages had been committed, which as- 
sertion had no foundation whatever in truth. 
Many of these statements have been suffered 
itopass suh silentio. Some have been cor- 
irected, others denied.. It is too apparent, 
however, at the present moment, that this 



system is to be continued with increased 
vigor and audacity, for party and political 
purposes, to allow of longer silence. I have 
resolved, therefore, to expose these misrep- 
resentations; and in order to do so with ihe 
greatest accuracy, I have applied to the able 
and efficient Commissiouer of Indian Af- 
fairs, General F. A. Walker, for certain facts 
connected with the Indian service, which I 
am about to present. I shall put these facts 
against assertions, or to speak more plainly, 
truth against falsehood, and then trust to 
the judgment of a candid and honest people 
for a righteous verdict. 

Upon the authority before mentioned ^1 
therefore assert that during the present year 
more than 

TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND INDIAJ!tS 

have been added to the number of those 
directly under the control of the Govern- 
ment. During the three years of the pre- 
sent Administration more than eighty 
thousand Indians have been brought to 
agencies and placed under the care and 
supervision of Indian agents. Xot to ex- 
ceed fifty thousand Indians are still roam- 
ing beyond the supervision of their agents, 
notwithstanding the immense extent of terri- 
tory whicli yet intervenes between the settled 
portions of the country. It has become almost 
a certainty that the coming year will see the 
number of roaming Indians so far reduced 
that, substantially, the whole Indian race 
within the UnitedStates will be settled upon 
reservations. These reservations are located 
with reference to allowing the freest develop- 
ment of railroad communications, the largest 
extension of agricultural settlements, and 
the safety of white citizens. They are also 
located with a view of secunng the best in- 
terests of the aboriginal population, and in 
order to afford the memljers of that unfor- 
tunate race opportunity to leasn the arts and 
customs of civilized life, and I trust in the 
end to participate in the happy destinies of 
the American people. Such a result would 
be well attained at any expense, for the free 
development of railroad communications and 
the extension of our settlemerrts is of incal- 
culable value merely from a pecuniary point 
of view. 

Every year the advance of our frontier 
takes in a new extent of lands teeming with 
agriculture and mineral wealth equal to the 
area of many of the largest States of the 
Union or some of the most powerful empires 
of tho world. To accomplish this witiiout 
delayer embarrassment from the aborigines of 
the country is one of the first duties of states- 
manship at the present time, and this is be- 
ing done under the humane and Christian 
policy of the Republican Administration, 
not only with strict juscica to tho Indians, 
but in the spirit of mercy and peace. 

SELF-SUPPOIiTINa. 

Of the 293,000 Indians within the limit '■'of 
the United States, exclusive of Alaska, ac- 
cording to the last estimate which it is pos- 
sible to form, 130,000 are now supporting; 
themselves upon their own lands, receiving' 
absolutely nothing from the Government be- 



yond the interest of their own money or an- 
nuities granted them in consideration of the 
cession of their lauds. The lands which they 
(Lave ceded have been sold by the Govern- 
ment to actual settlers at three, five, ten, or 
twenty times tho amount paid the Indians 
for them. 

Tlie aggregate cost of the subsistence of 
the 113,000 Indians at agencies, who are in 
whole or in part, often in a very small degree, 
Bubsisted ]>y the Government, was, for the 
past year, $2,446,000, including the excess- 
ively high charges fur the transportation of 
supplies which prevail in those distant re- 
gions. The fact that this sum divided among 
113,000 Indians, gives an average; of only 
§21.50 per head, i-i sufficient evidence that 
large numbers of these Indians are already 
closely approaching the condition where they 
will be self-s-upporting, while others are learn- 
ing the rudiments^of the mechanical or agri- 
cultural arts. 

Fifty or sixty agents, with a force of em- 
ployes, carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers, 
millers, and teachers, to the number in all of 
900, are engaged in the work of instructing 
these people to break up their own lands, 
build their own fences and cabins, saw their 
own lumber, and grind their own corn, as 
-well as to speak in our language and write in 
our alphabet. 

The cost of so great an enterprise is neces- 
sarily heavy, but it is as nothing compared to 
the cost of a mouth of general Indian war. 
It must also be remembered that war neces- 
sarily interrupts the progress of railways as 
■well as the settlement of our country, and 
renders insecure the lives of those who live 
on it3 frontier. 

The total amounb appropriated for the In- 
dian service in the fiscal year ending July 1, 
1872, including all deficiency appropriations, 
was $6,055,774 69. Of this sum $1,277,997 63 
was appropriated only in the sense that it 
gave the administrative officers of the Gov- 
ernment authority to pay to or expend in 
-behalf of the Indians moneys belonging to 
them. These moneys were the price of the 
-cession of many a hundred million acres of 
laud, now covered by the farms and factories 
or the cities of the whites. 

Moreover, of the sura appropriated, consid- 
erable in excess of $300,000 remained unex- 
.pended at the close of the j'ear, reducing the 
actual expenses of this gigantic service below 
four and a half millions of dollars. 

SrKQIiE WAES O? THE UNITED STATES WITH 
SIKQLE TRIBES OP INDIAKS 

have cost the Treasury ten, twenty, 
■thurty, and forty millions of dollars. The 
teport of the Commissioner of Indian 
. Affairs for the year 1868 reaches the conclu- 
sion that every Indian warrior killed in the 
Florida war, the Sioux war of 1852 and 1854, 
and the Cheyenne war of 1864, cost the Gov- 
ernment a million of dollars and the lives of 
^twenty white men. This is the cost of wars 
with single tribes, and the worst of it is, that 
■'these wars have never settled anything. The 
'Indians still remain, either to bo annihilated 
'by force of arms, at such enormous expendi- 
tures of blood and treasure, or else to be 



pacified by conciliatory actions, won over by 
kindness, "knit to us by constant good officer 
assisted to a condition of si-lf-support, and in 
the end made one with the whites by mutual 
sympathy and by a comi-pon devotion to a 
common country and the same Heavenly 
Father. 

Let those ■who, from lack of correct in- 
formation, are incredulous; let those whose 
desire for punishment or revenge has been 
aroused by exaggerated accounts of Indian 
depredations; let those who wish to change 
the present policy in order to renew again a 
host of faithless agents and contractors to 
plunder the ignorant savage, and rob him of 
the aid and beneficence of' the Government; 
and, finally, let those who desire war that 
they may reap the rich profits which its large 
and necessary expenditures affnid, ponder 
these facts, and answer before God and a 
Christian nation whether they will, if they 
can, destroy the present poiicj' of peace, 
justice, and progress, and restore the former 
system of cruelty, robbery, inhumanity, war, 
bloodshed, and crime. 

CHAKGES AGAINST GENEKAL QKANT. 

I must refer to some of the unreasonable 
and frivolous charges against General Grant, 
which, it seems to me, nothing bat the men- 
dacity of politics would allow honest men to 
iterate or reiterate. 

One is that he is inattentive to the duties 
of his office and recreates too much at water- 
ing places. Those who know anything of the 
laborsofaPresidentoftheWnitedStatesundcr- 
stand well that he does no more of this than 
is necessary and proper. 1 hey understand 
also that no public business suffers by reason 
of any neglect of his. They ouglit to re- 
member his four long ypars of toil and hard- 
ship in the field which, fe)llowed by the ex- 
hausting duties of his office, absolutely re- 
quire all the time for recuperation which ho 
takes. They ought to remember that amid 
rain, and sleet, and enow, ho spent part of 
one winter in recreation before Donelson; 
and, for the pleasure of the American peo- 
ple, by the help of his good soldiers, returned 
40,000 prisoners to tiie United States; and 
that again in the following summer oh the 
bloody field of Shiloh he recreated; and thait 
next, after that, he was found idling away 
his time in surrounding Vicksburg and driving 
the enemy inside of their fortifications, where 
at last he compelled Lhem to iiaul down their 
colors and surrender to the flag of the Union 
some 30,000 more prisoners; -that soon after 
that he was sent to the mountains of Chatta- 
nooga and Chickamauga, where he made the 
rebels again retreat; that soon after that he 
spent an idle summer in the Wilderness, and 
then a winter of pleasure before Richmond,and 
finally, in the next spring, amid the pleasures 
of recreation, received at Appomattox the 
sword of General Lise and the surrender of 
his entire army, the last organized rebel force 
against the union of the States. Remember- 
ing these facts, some patience and indulgence 
is commended to tho ^e who think now that 
every day of his life, during a hoc mid-sum- 
mer, after his nec'ssivy toil and labor, 
slioiild be spent in the city" of W.^liingfori. 



But he receives gifts! Uowcai> he be an 
honest man ami r'rtitlifiilly administer tlie 
affaii-sof tho nation? The injustice of this 
charge is so apparent as to justify the ep- 
ithet of meanness and audacity. The Pres- 
ident, without wealth, entered the loyal 
army, with the patriotic desire of aiding in the 
work of preserviu'^ Mie Union. Ho hazarded 
life and health durini^ four long years of 
danf^er and hardship; lie rose in rank only as 
his merit and victories justified; from a sub- 
altern he became a Lieutenant General, until, 
after breaking up the last effective organiza- 
tion of rebel troops and receiving the sword 
of General U'.^, the grateful hearts of the 
American people naturally turned to him as 
their defender and their great deliverer. 

During his toilsome years of labor many 
private fortunes were made, and others 
largely augmented, while it must be ac- 
knowledged that neither opportunity nor 
avarico had prompted him to accumulate a 
farthing. Our Government grants no titles 
of nobility, nor settles estates in the form of 
annuities upon her benefactors; but there is, 
notwithstanding, a sense of justice and gen- 
erosity with the sovereign people. This 
prompted certain persons of large means, 
who had gathered and enjoyed the fruits of 
the President's great services and noble sac- 
rifices, to offer him, voluntarily, before he 
was spoken of as President, such testimonials 
of their regard and esteem as should con- 
tribute to the moderate wants of himself and 
family. These offerings wera the sponta- 
neous outpourings of generous feelings, cred- 
itable to the donors and honorable to the 
nation. They were a fitting evidence' of that 
sentiment of justice that characterizes the 
American people. They were intended not as 
compensation for what had been done, for that 
was beyond price, and they furnished evi- 
dence that God yet inspires man toward the 
performance of his most delicate duty. How 
envy, or party malice, or political rivalry can 
torture these noble deeds into acts to be cen- 
sured and condemned passes the comprehen- 
sion of all reasonable men. 

TEE BALTlfiORB COXYENTION- 

But the Baltimore Convention had finally 
sent to the country a borrowed candidate and 
platform, neither one bearing any relation- 
ship or affinity to that party. It was a nom- 
ination that leading Democrats had declared 
they could not support. 

Mr. Greeley, a life-long Abolitionist, a Ke- 
publiean, disaffected at the neglects of the 
Administration, had sought to originate the 
split and promote the call for the Cincinnati 
Convention, intending it to redound to his 
personal benelit. Never In the history of 
parties had the pretended purposes of politi- 
cians been so suddenly perverted. 

The convention had no thought of Mr. 
Greeley when his name was sprung upon it. 
It was 80 amazed and amused at the audacity 
of the Missouri trick that against its will and 
understanding he received the nomination. 
Proclaiming free trade and revenue reform it 
took up the most intolerant high-protective 
tariff advocate in the country, one who had 
<iYOwed himself a ferocious protectionist, and 



declared that if the Democrats nominated him 
it would put thorn both in a false position. 
Bidding directly for the Democratic support 
it discarded estimable and g(tod Democrats 
and selected the most notorious, unbridled 
reviler of Democracy, of Democratic men 
and measures that could anywhere be found. 
Seeking the votes of colored citizens, never- 
thelesslts champion was the super-serviceable 
bondsman of Jefferson Davis whoo Jefferson 
Davis had a superfluity of bail at his com- 
mand. 

And, finally, looking to widen the Repub- 
lican breach, it blundered still more egregi- 
ously in nominating one who, long ago. had 
forfeited the confidence of the Republican 
party. His perversity against better judg- 
ments in advocating secession in 1861; his 
self-appointed mission of peace to Niagara 
Falls in the midst of the war, in 18G4, these 
impracticable views had lost Mr. Greeley tlie 
confidence of the Republican party and left 
hira no following from the members ot tliat 
party, when he should leave it. The stu- 
pendous blunder of his nomination at Cin- 
cinnati seems only equal to the marvelous 
mistake of his indorsement at Baltimore. 
Let us candidly consult Mr. Greeley's opin- 
ion of it. 

In his speech at Warren, Trumbull county, 
Ohio, September 25, 1871, he said: 

"I S1W the other day a suggestion that 1 
would probably be the best Democratic can- 
didate to run against General Grant for Presi- 
dent. I thought that about the most absurd 
thin'» I ever heard of. If the Democratic 
party were called upon to decide between 
Grant and myself, I know that their regard 
for what they must call principle would in- 
duce them to vote against me. Why? I am 
a decided enemy of that party even in ita 
most respectable aspects." 

Is it not beyond belief that Mr. Greeley, 
the enemy of the Democratic party for forty 
years, could change and become its accepta- 
ble candidate in two months, even "in. %ti 
most respectable aspects;" and is it not beyond 
belief that honest Democrats, who have acted 
with the party for so many years, upheld ii^ 
tenets, advocated its doctrines, and struggled 
to preserve its ancient faith, could in a few 
days forget the work of years and volunteer 
to aid a sworn enemy in his self-aggrandize- 
ment and work of destruction. The Hon. 
Mr. Voorhees solemnly declared so. 

But this is a day of political surprises; 
and however strange the attitude of the 
Baltimore candidate perhaps there may 
still be found an explanation without invok- 
ing the supernatural or appealing to the 
miraculous. ,,,,-. i.. 

To Mr. Greeley we should look tor tho 
true explanation of himself. 

I hold in my hand a little book entitled, 
"What Horace Greeley Knows." I read from 
this little book, on page 6^ the chapter about 
wanting to be President of tne United 
States * ■ 

Mr. Greeley says: «'I>tr. Webster was not 
only a gentleman, but/ he had the ^lementa 
of moral greatness; and he had faults as 
well. He failed only in one respect, and m 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



this respect I differ from liini— lie -wuTited to 
be President, and I don't. But for that one 
misfortune he would have been the greatest 
man America ever produced. We have 
seen our greatest man, Mr. Cliase, making 
the same blunder. I have seen men vfho had 
the disease early and died of it at a very old 
age. General Lewis Cass died at about 
eighty- two, and up to the day of his death 
he wanted to be President. No one ever 
escapes who once catches the disease; he 
lives and dies in the delusion. Being a 
reader and observer at an early age, I saw 
how it poisoned and paralyzed the very best 
of our public men, and I have carefully 
avoided it." [Greeley at Quebec] 

This is the explanation given by himself, 
involving no philosophy, no mystery beyond 
that of the regular, original and universal 
thirst for office. 

Mr. Greeley has taken the disease of which 
"Webster and Cass died, and which has poi- 
soined and paralyzed Chief Justice Chase. 
He will himself linger on until November 
and die in this delusion. He might add with 
profit to his last will and testament a copy- 
right of this little book in the following lan- 
guage: 

" I leave j'ou here a little book, 
For you to look upon; 

I That yavL may see the farmer's face, 
When he is dead and gone." 

DEATH OF THB DEMOCRATIC PAETY. 

The Democratic party must be regarded as 
dead. Its adoption of the Cincinnati plat- 
form and of the Cincinnati nominee is the 
announcement of its dissolution. T/ie present 
canvass is its political requiem. Will its old 
members go like sheep to the shambles driven 
by their leaders? Was there no principle 
formerly holding them together? Is there 
nothing now to which they aspire except the 
loaves and fishes of office; and will the co- 
hesive power of public plunder, under the 
patriotic watch-word of "anything to beat 
Grant," induce all former Democrats to vote 
for Greeley? I shall be amazed if it is so. 
Icaa not afid will not believe it until I 
see it. 

The old Democratic party did contain men 
within its ranks of earnest convictions, of 
sincere sentiments. They believed they were 
right. They deemed the war unnecessary. 
They denied the right of coercion. In the 
South they believed in the right of secession. 



They honestly u^J^.JS^^.JQ^ 528 6 v 

emancipation, and were shocked at the idea 
of enfranchisement ajid civil rights. All this 
and much more wasHiatter of faith and sen- 
timent. All this is now renounced. It was 
swept away at Cincinnati and Baltimore; 
and they are asked to accept as their candi- 
date one who has ever opposed them, and, 
opposing them, has denounced them with 
bitter reproaches, threatened them with con- 
fiscation of their estates and a division of the 
same among emigrants from the North. 

It is monstrously absurd that all these 
men— the rank and file— "Tray, Sweetheart, 
and Blanche," shall at once begin to bark 
for Mr. Greeley and go for the Cincinnati 
platform. 

General Grant is a Republican, but he has 
never been the enemy of the South or of her 
institutions. He was a War Democrat. His 
magnanimity toward the South in 1866-'67, 
caused him to receive the reproaches of 
Radical Republicans, among them a distin- 
guished Senator from Massachusetts. 

He was then accused of whitewashing the 
South. He was censured for the liberal 
terras gmnted to General Pemberton when 
he surrendered Vicksburg. He was accused 
of too great liberality when he received the 
sword of General Lee at Appomattox, and 
permitted his destitute and half-starved troopa 
to be fed with our rations. He was thanked 
by Lee when he permitted the rebel troops to 
take home, for use on their farms, the horses 
which they individually owned; and when 
General Lee was prosecuted, after surrend- 
ering upon the agreement tliat future good 
behavior should be his protection, General 
Grant insisted, like a noble and courageous 
man, that Lee must be protected. 

'These facts are too fresh and too impor- 
tant to be forgotten. Justice has not fled to 
brutish beasts, nor have all men lost their 
reason. Time w!tl awaken memory; mem- 
ory will lead to reflection, and rellaction will 
show candid and upright men, whose desire 
for office doe.s not swallow up all other con- 
siderations, that General Grant for an honest 
Democrat is a much tnoro desirable candi- 
data than Mr. Greeley. TJie old Democratic 
party having expired, the niembors are not 
compelled to swallow the Cincinnati plat- 
form and the Tammany nomination also,, 
but they are at liberty to rearrange their, 
party relations and join such organization, 
as, in their judgment, will best promote tho 
.public peace, prosperity, and welfare. ■ 



